The Texas Toothpick is a slipjoint pattern with one blade. Full sized Texas Toothpicks are pretty darn big pocket knives (especially for slipjoints) and can have up to a 4 inch blade.

The Texas Toothpick pattern has a clip point blade. This blade type is good for a wide variety of tasks. Compared to a drop point a clip point has a smaller tip that is better for detail work, such as carving. The downside is that the tip is slightly less strong as it is essentially a drop point with a “clip” taken out of it. Less material means less strength.

Japanese tanto blades have a very particular type of edge shape. The edge at the tip is at a very obtuse angle to the point itself, and then curves sharply to form the body of the edge. This creates one edge that is almost like two edges, an edge line at the tip that is at about a 45 degree angle to the spine, and an edge that is parallel with the spine.

Americanized tantos are similar, but the two edges are not joined by a curve, but rather and abrupt point. Here is an Emerson Super CQC7.

The Stockman pattern is one of the most common and popular slipjoint patterns. It combines a clip point main blade with a spey blade and a sheepsfoot.

This American made Buck Stockman has black plastic scales. They look nicer than you would expect from plastic. The steel is 420HC, which is a very decent soft-ish stainless steel when heat treated well. There is also a Chinese made Buck Stockman that has wood scales and 440C scales. Some people consider the quality of the Chinese made Buck Stockmen to be on par with the American made version. In my opinion the American made version does have a stronger feel to the backspring, and a better finish on the blades. However, you do get wood scales and the argueably better 440C steel for an even lower price.

The Buck Sirus is an assisted opening knife much like the Kershaw SpeedSafe knives designed by Ken Onion. Assisted opening knives differ from truw switchblades in that the knife is not opened purely from the force applied by a spring. Instead a cam opens the knife the rest of the way after it has been opened manually a portion of the travel. This is an important legal distinction, but a hardly noticable function one.

I talked a little bit already about the Benchmade balisongs (the BM42 and BM32 Morpho), but Benchmade’s main competitor Spyderco also makes some balisongs or “butterfly” knives.

The first that Spyderco made was the Spyderfly.

The Spyderfly has stainless steel handles which give it a heavier feel than the BM42 and BM32 Morpho. The BM42 has titanium handles, which are very light. The BM32 Morpho has G-10 scales on titanium liners, and are also very light. That makes for easy flipping and very little hand pain. However, it is harder to generate speed and momentum with lighter handles. The heavier stainless steel handles of the Spyderfly are great for fast flipping. However, they can wear down on the hand a bit.

Sorry about failing to post for a few days, everyone. I had a busy labor day weekend. I hope you all had a fun one as well.

Today I’d like to talk about what I feel is an underrated knife, the Buck Short Nighthawk.

The Buck Short Nighthawk is the shorter version of the Buck Nighthawk. The larger Nighthawk also has a plain edge while the Short Nighthawk has a partially serrated edge. The Buck Short Nighthawk is made from 1/4 inch thick 420HC. The thickness gives it a lot of strenght, and 420HC is a fairly tough steel to begin with. It is very stain resistant and fairly soft and tough. It does not hold an edge for a very long time, but the edge holding is more than acceptable.